Maddi MacDonald, Green Iowa Americorps It was a great pleasure to welcome Chris Johnson, President/CEO of Vesterheim, on 06.21.22 to speak about the Vesterheim expansion and energy projects. Vesterheim is the National Norwegian-American Museum and Folk Art School here in the heart of Decorah, with a history dating back to 1877. Starting as a small collection on Luther’s campus, Vesterheim has grown to be a pinnacle point for this community.
Zachary Fromm, Board Member, Winneshiek Energy District What is the range of electric vehicles compared to vehicles with conventional internal combustion engines? The range of Electric Vehicles (EVs) is difficult to measure because you are not dealing with gallons of gasoline; you are dealing with kilowatt hours (kWh) of electricity. The question is the same, however: How far can I drive on a full tank of … electrons vs. gasoline?
Andy Johnson, Executive Director The Iowa Utilities Board has declined to hear Decorah’s complaint requesting utility data from Alliant, despite their own staff and the Office of Consumer Advocate recommending they do so. The data was requested by the Municipal Electric Utility Task Force in order to update or conduct a new feasibility study, as charged by the city council. The Utilities Board determined they simply did not have legal
Andy Johnson, Executive Director We wrote last month about the looming potential for brownouts in the Midwest (the story was picked up by Bleeding Heartland). Our analysis showed that the potential power shortfall in a worst-case summer scenario appeared to be driven more by growing fossil fuel plant failures as by intentional coal plant closures or the variability of growing renewable energy. In fact, we suggested, Iowa regulators and utilities should be working
Andy Johnson, Executive Director The June 2nd print edition of the Des Moines Register led with the headline “Iowans warned of rolling blackouts”, and utility sources proceeded to make repeated connections between the growth of renewable energy and a less reliable grid. As Mark Twain said: “Few things are more irritating than when someone who is wrong is also very effective in making his point.” Sure, it sounds sensible that
With energy costs high and rising, fossil fuel execs and some politicians and pundits are claiming we need more domestic oil, coal, and natural gas in order to tame energy cost inflation. This is about as true as Brer Rabbit not wanting to get thrown into the briar patch. In reality, it is the volatile and global nature of fossil fuels that lead to inflation, community wealth extraction, and even
The Bipartisan Infrastructure Law was passed in late 2021, and the Biden administration released a valuable Rural Playbook to help rural America identify and access funding opportunities. The BIL will bring major investment in many aspects of the clean energy transition that we’ll discuss going forward, but we want to highlight the Clean School Bus Program Funding, which is NOW OPEN. This $5 billion pot is administered by EPA directly (not through states), and
Andy Johnson, Clean Energy Districts of Iowa Energy Democracy notched an important success in Iowa this year, as the legislature agreed to fund the Iowa solar tax credit waitlist. (solar homeowners: the deadline to apply is June 30th) The Clean Energy Districts of Iowa (CEDI) has been working on the waitlist issue for over a year, since it was clear the 2021 legislature was not about to extend the state’s
Andy Johnson, Clean Energy Districts of Iowa In addition to the solar tax credit waitlist funding, the defeat of restrictive utility scale solar energy siting and changes to building energy codes were both positive outcomes from the 2022 legislative session. “The debate over large-scale solar energy in Iowa has reached the Capitol. A bill recently passed out of the Senate Agriculture Committee, Senate File 2127, would effectively outlaw solar panels
Jim Martin-Schramm, WED Board Member The Winneshiek Energy District (WED) recently received a modest grant from the Solutions Project to help Allamakee County manage impacts related to Alliant Energy’s decision to close the Lansing Generating Station by the end of 2022. WED’s goal is to help the citizens of Allamakee County transition away from a fossil fuel past to a locally-owned, clean energy future. WED has worked with members of